In Bart's Boffo! How I Learned to Love the Blockbuster and Fear the Bomb, the veteran Hollywood film executive and journalist dissects 27 unlikely entertainment successes of the past century. Here is Bart's take on the story behind the story of these three best-picture Academy Award winners.

Success is ephemeral, failure is inevitable and woe to those who don't bow before the fickle movie gods. That is the collective wisdom shared by a who's who of Hollywood insiders, from stars (Jodie Foster, George Clooney) to studio bigwigs (20th Century Fox co-chairman Tom Rothman, ex-Paramount chief Sherry Lansing) in the HBO documentary Boffo! Tinseltown's Bombs & Blockbusters, premiering June 29 (9 ET/PT).